The 3GPP has been pursuing the goals of improving communication efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum opportunities, and achieving better integration with other open standards. These goals have been visualized into two aspects, i.e., WAN network evolution and LAN network evolution. Under the LTE standard, WAN networks are generally referred to as LTE macro networks covered by e.g., macro eNBs, and are mostly deployed and managed by operators on licensed spectrums. LAN networks, also referred to as LTE-LAN networks, consist of for example picocells or femtocells (i.e., home-eNB cells) that operate in dedicated spectrums and focus more on local area features for residential/enterprise/public hotspot use cases.
In communication architecture involving the above LTE-LAN networks, a network element, also referred to as a SN, has been located at a CN side and configured to provide support/control/maintenance functionalities to the LTE-LAN networks. An LTE-LAN BS, e.g., a home-eNB as above mentioned, has been located at a RAN network side and enables a UE to access to the LTE-LAN network. Under such architecture, the UE could be in connection with both the macro eNB and the LTE-LAN BS, which are known as “dual radio connections.” The connection with the macro eNB needs to be more stable and prudently managed such that the UE could not easily get disconnected. In contrast, the connection with the LTE-LAN BS is more endeavored to provide high speed data services for the UE in the local area. There may be a backhaul connection between the macro eNB and the LTE-LAN BS such that data transmitted by the UE to the LTE-LAN BS may be forwarded to the CN side via the macro eNB.
The services as provided by the LTE-LAN ES may include but are not limited to wireless display, LIPA, wireless storage, high speed data downloading and so on. Some of these local services, e.g., high speed data downloading, may also be supported by the macro eNB. In this case, when the UE is moving out of the coverage area of the LTE-LAN BS and entering into the coverage area of the macro eNB, its local service can be retained due to service support from the macro eNB. For a better understanding of the above dual radio connections and problems that may arise therein, discussion will be made in connection with FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 illustrates a handover scenario in which a UE keeps in connections with a macro eNB 1 and a LAN AP 1 (i.e., a LTE-LAN BS) via two RRC connections, i.e., dual radio connections. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the coverage areas of eNBs 1 to 3 are represented by circles and the coverage area of the AP 1 is represented by an ellipse. It can be seen from FIG. 1 that the eNBs may provide wider coverage area than the AP. When the UE is leaving the coverage areas of the eNB 1 and the AP 1 and moving towards the common coverage areas of the macro eNBs 2 and 3, as illustrated by an arrow, both the eNB 1 and AP 1 may initiate respective handover procedures and then select respective handover target BSs or eNBs. Due to their diverse implementations, the eNB 1 and AP 1 may have different handover criterions and thus may select different target BSs. For example, the eNB 1 may select the eNB 2 as a target BS and the AP 1 may select the eNB 3 as a target BS, and then subsequent to the handover procedure, the UE would keep in RRC connections with the macro eNBs 2 and 3 contemporaneously, which is undesirable in the LTE system and may boil down to bad mobility control.
In addition, although not illustrated in FIG. 1, there may be a scenario in which the UE in the dual radio connections may enter into the coverage area of another AP which may provide a better or more robust service than the serving AP. Efficiently dealing with this scenario is crucial for providing the UE with flexible and sufficient mobility.
In view of the above, it may be desirable to provide methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for providing mobility control for LAN networks, by which the UE's mobility under the dual radio connections would be very well controlled and thus service continuity can be maintained without impacting user experiences.